Corrections

Eighteen satellite images display the Al-Hawizeh wetland at different years ranging from 1999 to 2017.

On the other hand, the area of the wetland in this time has misheard to analyze the changes in its size.

The images and the areas were compared with temporal annual inflows and precipitation to understand the effect of natural and man-made processes on the inflows to the Al-Hawizeh wetland.

In the 1990s in comparison to 2000s, the water supply in the Al Hawizeh wetland did not get reduced considerably due to the absence of the major engineering projects and water supply in upstream.

Construction the dykes due to the war was the single factor of desiccation at this time.

But in 1999, according to the (figure 21), the precipitation and inflow in both rivers have significantly decreased.

The area in 1999 was 1417.85 km2 (table 10).

In 2000 and 2001, according to the (figures 22 and 23), the vegetation part is more than the water part.

The wetland extent reduced to 2705.98 km2 in 2000 and 1362.55 km2 in 2001 (table 10).

In this time the precipitation increased in both river in compared to 1999, but the flow has a decrease probably because of water consumption in upstream.

By 2002 and 2003, despite the increase in precipitation and inflow in Tigris river, a decrease in extent the wetland was shown as compared with 2001.

According to (table 10) the area in 2002 was 1756.36 km2 and in 2003 was 1019.29 km2.

Al-Hawizeh wetland in 2002 and 2003 started showing signs of fast desiccation (figure 24 and 25).

Upon completion of the Karkheh Dam by the Iranian government in the year 2001, only the major visible changes appeared in the Al-Hawizeh wetland area because of the irrigation to some 32,000 ha of agricultural land in the Karkheh catchment.

According to this increased irrigation land area and demand for more water, the discharged water into wetland significantly decreased, especially in the dry season.

After Iraq independence in 2003, as a consequence of blowing up dikes of war in Iraqi part, the inflows from the Tigris slowly increased and the dry land south of Al-Hawizeh wetland was being systematically filled, resulting in an increase in overall wetland area increase in 2004 to 2008, compared to 2003, especially in the southern Iraq side as seen in satellite images (figures 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30).

However, the southern Iran side of the wetland did not improve, mainly because of the operation of Karkheh dam.

Moreover, in 2003 and 2004 the precipitation and inflow increased in Tigris river and it had the increasing trend in 2005 and 2006 in both river.

The area of the wetland was 1210.04 km2, 2527.31km2, 2307.04km2, 2447.8km2, and 2584.34km2 for the years of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Considering the start of petroleum activities of Iraq and Iran and the construction of dyke in Irani part in 2009, and due to the drought in 2008 and 2009, the wetland started showing signs of fast desiccation in 2009 especially in Iraqi part (figure 31).

The area of wetland was 2142.17km2 in 2009.

From 2010 to 2012 the precipitation and inflow had the slight increasing trend just in Tigris river.

In this year due to the continuing the petroleum activities, the wetland had the decreasing trend in loss of extent, according to (table 10) the area of wetland was 1591.7km2, 1684.26km2, and 1584.22km2 in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

The (figure 13) shows the hard increase in inflow and precipitation in Tigris river in 2013 which cause to Increase the area of wetland in Iraqi part.

In 2013 the precipitation and inflow significantly increased in Tigris river, resulting in an increase in overall wetland area (compared to 2010) on the Iraq side and the area was 1205.51km2 in this year.

In January 2013, the drying of wetland by oil companies for oil extraction was stopped with a court order in Iran, and water entering the wetland was started gradually (figure 35).

As it shows in (figures 36, 37, 38 and 39) in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, both side in Iraqi and Irani part has increased in the area in following 2013.

The images show that the Iran succeeded to re-flood the Al-Hawizeh wetland from 2014 to 2017, except in 2015 due to drought (Salman et al 2017).

But the Iraqi part had fluctuation in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and it has decreased trend.